All things Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tonys

Poll: Best performance at the Academy of Country Music Awards?

April 4, 2011 | 9:26
am

This post has been corrected. Please see note at the bottom for details.

"Wonderful!" Nicole Kidman gasped as TV cameras spied her in the audience after Zac Brown and James Taylor teamed up at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Kidman and hubby Keith Urban were on their feet along with everyone else in the MGM Grand auditorium cheering the joint performance of Brown's "Colder Weather" and Taylor's "Sweet Baby James."

That was one of several performances that earned standing ovations at the ACM Awards, but was it the best? The audience rose up again to salute Ronnie Dunn making his solo debut. His performance of "Bleed Red" was so amazing that TV cameras caught Taylor Swift gasping "Wow!" in the audience as she leapt to her feet in awe.

Another standing ovation greeted Darius Rucker leading a choir of disabled singers from the ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp in the new tune "Music From the Heart."

Other knockout performance combos included Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles teaming up with Rihanna to sing "California King Bed." Brad Paisley wowed the crowd crooning "Old Alabama" with the music group Alabama, and Carrie Underwood rocked the joint singing "Undo It" and "Walk This Way" with Steven Tyler.

For the record, 11:32 a.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to the James Taylor song "Sweet Baby James" as "Sweet Baby Jane."